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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28387818">The One with the French</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/PenguinWrites/pseuds/PenguinWrites'>PenguinWrites</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Awkward Flirting, Bad French, College/University, F/F, Pre-Femslash, Tutoring</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 14:34:47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,272</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28387818</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/PenguinWrites/pseuds/PenguinWrites</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Elena is surprised when an outgoing stranger approaches her in a cafe. Soon she finds herself tutoring the stranger in French, and the stranger's French abilities aren't the only thing that develops during their tutoring sessions.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The One with the French</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Can you tutor me?”</p><p>“What?” Startled, Elena looked up from the novel she had been engrossed in to see a girl standing next to her table in the coffee shop. The girl’s backpack looked so heavy, it seemed impossible for her small frame to still be upright. And for some reason, the girl was staring at Elena with a look of expectation.</p><p>“Can you tutor me?” the girl repeated. “I need help in French, and you’re reading a book in French, so I figured you could probably help.”</p><p>Elena looked down at her book, then glanced around the small coffee shop. It was true, she was reading the original version of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables for her class on revolution-era French literature, but what did that have to do with this stranger? Had they ever met before? Was this some kind of prank?</p><p>“I...do I know you?” she stuttered, confused why someone would randomly approach her like this.</p><p>“Not yet, but we can fix that!” The girl sat down at Elena’s table, dropping her backpack with a relieved sigh on the chair next to her. “Hi, my name’s Riley. What’s your name?”</p><p>And so it was that a few evenings later, Elena found herself sitting in a study room in the library, waiting for Riley to show up for their first tutoring session. She was just pulling out her phone to check if she had the time right when Riley bounced into the room.</p><p>“Hey girl, you made it!” Riley set two lattes piled high with whip cream on the table. “As per our deal, here’s your drink, and I’ll E-transfer you the ten bucks later.”</p><p>The two had agreed that this was fair compensation for Elena’s services in tutoring Riley in her beginner French course. Riley was finding it to be difficult, and Elena felt she would be able to help, and maybe gain a friend along the way.</p><p>Elena took a sip of her drink and smiled softly. “What are we starting with?”</p><p>Riley pulled a thick binder out of her backpack and dropped it on the table with a thunk. “Well, we’ve had three different vocab lists, learned conjugations for a bunch of irregular verbs, who the hell invented those anyways?, and we talked a lot about personal pronouns I think, but I got kind of lost on that.” </p><p>“Oh wow, okay.” Elena paused, trying to determine how to measure Riley’s strengths and weaknesses. “Can I see the vocabulary lists?”</p><p>Riley rifled through the binder and pulled out three sheets of paper. “Here, I think these are the ones.”</p><p>Elena glanced over the lists. Areas of study, emotions, and transportation. She hummed to herself for a moment as she thought about how to approach the tutoring session. “Okay,” she said finally, “Let’s just start with a conversation. I’ll ask some simple questions, small talk kind of thing.”</p><p>Riley nodded. “Sure, but I’m warning you, my pronunciation is horrible.”</p><p>Stifling a giggle, Elena glanced over the lists one more time before deciding exactly where to start. “Comment ça va?"</p><p>Riley frowned, then her face lit up. “Oh! I know this one! It’s ‘how are you?’. Now, how do I…” she trailed off for a moment, her fingers tapping the table as she thought. "Ça va bien, et vous?” </p><p>Elena smiled. “Ca va bien. But you know, vous is mostly used for plurals, or when you need to show respect. There’s no need for that with me, you can just use tu.” </p><p>Riley scribbled down a note on a lined sheet of paper. “Okay, got it.”</p><p>“Comment tu te sens?” Elena asked next. She hoped Riley would understand the question in context of the vocabulary she had learned.</p><p>“Um…” Riley wrinkled her nose and tapped her fingers on the table. “Sorry, I don’t know what that means. Can you write it down? I’m not very good with understanding when people talk in French.”</p><p>Elena stood up and used a blue marker to write the question on the whiteboard on the wall in tidy, rounded letters.</p><p>“Oh, okay! Um, I’m happy,  je suis contente?”</p><p>“Sure, that’s a good answer!” Elena said encouragingly. “Do you know any other words that could describe how you’re feeling right now?”</p><p>Riley paused for a moment before saying tentatively, “je suis confortable?”</p><p>“Ah, that doesn’t quite work. French doesn’t have quite the same concept of comfortable as we do in English. ‘Confortable’ is used mostly for objects, to express that the object gives a feeling of comfort. If you want to say that you are comfortable, in the context of feeling at ease and not anxious or nervous, the phrase you want is ‘je suis à l’aise’.”</p><p>“Je suis à l'aise,” Riley nodded at Elena’s explanation and jotted down some more notes. </p><p>“Okay, let’s try a different topic,” Elena suggested. “Comment arrives-tu à l'école?"</p><p>“Je arrive en autobus!” Riley said triumphantly. “I come by bus! I know that one!”</p><p>“Almost,” Elena smiled. “You just have to remember that it's ‘j’arrive’, not ‘je arrive’.”</p><p>Riley cringed. “Ohhhh, right, sorry! You must think I’m stupid.” </p><p>“Not at all! You’re doing really well at this. Here, I’ll say my answer, and then I want you to tell me in English how I get to school. J’arrive à vélo."</p><p>Riley frowned. “No, I don’t know that one.”</p><p>“That’s okay.” Elena looked down at the vocabulary list and chuckled. “That’s probably because that word isn’t on your list, my apologies. But this one is. J’arrive à l'école à bicyclette.”</p><p>“Oh! You come to school on your bike! That’s so cool, does it have like the cute little basket on the front to put your books in?”</p><p>Elena giggled. “C’mon Riley, we have to focus. Here, what about this one. Quel sujet étudies-tu?"</p><p>Riley paused. “I know what you asked, and I know what the word is for it, but I have no clue how to say it.”</p><p>“Well, how about you write it on the whiteboard then?” Elena held out the marker for Riley to take. Riley stepped carefully over her backpack which was lying on the floor, books spilling out the top, to stand by the whiteboard.</p><p>“I’m studying this,” she said as she wrote in careful block letters ‘DÉVELOPPEMENT INTERNATIONALE’. “It looks so close to the English, but I know that’s not how you say it. Maybe, um, day-vell-up-meant inter-nash-uh-nail?</p><p>“So close!” Elena praised. “The end of développement is more of a nasal sound, and the t-i-o-n in internationale doesn’t say ‘sh’, it says ‘s’.”</p><p>Riley nodded and stepped back toward the table, but she tripped on a stray book and fell. Elena was surprised to suddenly find herself with a girl lying across her lap.</p><p>“Um, hi,” she said awkwardly. “You okay?”</p><p>“Yeah,” Riley giggled, pulling herself up. “I’m fine. Tu es confortable.”</p><p>“Riley, I told you-”</p><p>“No!” Riley interrupted. “I mean like, you’re really soft and squishy and I bet sitting on your lap would be way more comfortable than any chair. I’m not telling you that you’re not nervous, because you actually look really nervous right now.”</p><p>Elena blushed and she ducked her head, shyly twirling a strand of wavy hair around her finger. Was Riley poking fun at her thick thighs? Or, maybe, could she be flirting? “Um, I...:”</p><p>Riley giggled again as she knelt on the floor to put all the spilled books back in her back. “It’s okay, I’m just teasing you! Thanks for the help today, I’ll see you next week!”</p><p>As she swept out the door in a whirlwind of energy, Elena sat stone still, a million thoughts circling her mind.</p>
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